Detained U.S. Citizen Says Immigration Agents Lied About Everything

According to Hermosillo’s girlfriend, he has learning disabilities and is only able to write his own name. He told Popular Information that he did not graduate from high school, only finishing the tenth grade. According to the DHS report, Hermosillo “read” their document or had it read to him, but he says that never happened. On top of that, the documents contain inaccurate information, claiming that Hermosillo was detained “at or near Nogales, Arizona,” which is more than 70 miles away from Tucson.

Hermosillo was then held in a cell with 15 other men at Florence Correctional Center, a privately run immigration detention facility, for 10 days before being released on April 17. Two days into his detention, he told a judge that he was a U.S. citizen, but prosecutors then asked that his hearing be rescheduled, with Hermosillo remaining in detention until then. Seven days later, at the next hearing, his family provided the immigration court with his birth certificate.

While in detention, Hermosillo contracted the flu but was not provided with any medicine after he requested it. His pleas to prison staff that he was a U.S. citizen were met with replies of, “Call your lawyer.”